SOLVED. Probably Australian, follows convict Ancestor Thecla and modern day life of three sisters, once who falls for [s]

[Laura]

This book interweaves the story of Thecla, an Irish girl who gets pregnant and gets sent away. She ends up working for Mary Wollstonecraft before coming to Australia as a convict. she later becomes famous for making great soap.

In the present day, one of her descendents is dealing with her current deadbeat boyfriend, who is trying to distill a perfume out of some kind of insects to make him irrestistable to women. She is also in love with the local priest. She is also anonymously writing erotica.

Her sister resents her. Her daughter is famous for being on chocolate wrappers, but her life feels hollow.

The third sister has a daughter is who believed to be slightly odd/mentally deficient. She treats her daughter badly, but the daughter has a secret that will destory her mother's world.

There is also the story of the old woman who lives at the beach and the pearl.

It is a really interwoven story, quite complex. I wish I could remember the name.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

When did you read it Laura? And was it a British pub (England/Scotland/Ireland or Oz) or an American one?

Sounds interesting tho.

[Laura]

pretty sure it was set in Australia.

I read it years ago now, I am not sure when it was published, though. I think the cover had a photograph of dark blue water on it. That's about all I can think of.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

how long ago was "years ago"? For me, that would be back in the late 60's to early 70's. For my daughter, it would be the mid 80's to early 90's. Its different for every age group.

You don't remember WHERE it was published? Or are you U.S. only? There are a lot of people on here from all over, so it does help if you can tell us ANYTHING you might remember.

(BTW--I'm being such a pain about this because as soon as it's I.D.ed it's going on my TBR pile. :o) So the more things you can thing of, the better.)

[Laura]

I am pretty sure it was an Australian novel. I am pretty sure it was set in australia, and the landscape etc. felt right.

Hmmm I am trying to remember how long ago it was. I would say at least 8 years, maybe more.

I can't be sure about the publication date, so this info will be guessing. I am guessing by the cover image style and the book condition that it was likely published in the 90s. Generally books from the 80s look quite yellowy. Unless it was deadstock. The whole flat cover image thing seems quite early 90s too, although that's hard for me to judge exactly, as I was quite young in the 90s.

If you want any more plot stuff, I can remember more plot, but it's all spoilers.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Laura--if you are worried about people inadvertantly reading the spoilers you can hide them, and the reader can check them out if they think they know the book. To do this you type < $ poiler> to start and < / $ poiler> to end--removing the blank spaces and changing the $ to an S.

By doing that you can also "rate" the spoilers--you know--This happened fairly early in the book, this was the end of the book, this was a clue to what the "strange" daughter was hiding, this was WHAT the daughter was hiding, etc.

(view spoiler)[ this is just to show what it looks like. (hide spoiler)]

[Lisa]

The Sea People by Maurilia Meehan

[Laura]

Yes, that is it. Got to go now, will shelve later. Thanks.

[Laura]

Thanks to whoever added this. Uni assignments killing all my time right now. And I appreciate you finding this, Lisa! I hate not knowing what a book I liked was!

[Lisa]

You're welcome : )
P.S. I didn't move it. I don't know how. LOL